Description: Insurance companies utilize derivatives in a variety of ways to manage and mitigate risks that are inherent in their investment or liability portfolios. They can be characterized by three main features: medium long-term duration; large volumes; and significant market risk exposure. Given the persistent low interest rate environment across the curve since the 2008 financial crisis, large companies need to hedge their liabilities, as illustrated by the significant recent increase from $786 billion as of fiscal year 2010 to $1,885 billion as of FY 2014 by insurance companies.As the Variable Annuities (VA) guarantees embedded within those liabilities hold a strong convex risk profile with respect to the underlying stock, VA carriers need to buy some convex hedge assets such as options to match the liability risk profile to improve hedge effectiveness, implying the growing cost of hedging. Such market impact of the quantity on the cost of hedging is further magnified in the recent period with the short-lived, but sharp transitions from low volatility to high volatility, when market volatility suddenly increases, even when there were no well-known fundamental catalysts. This partially stems from the growing managed volatility funds embedded within VA ($bn 400).VA carriers willing to trade a large quantity of options will see such market impact as an important dilemma, as the cost of placing one large order to close position will be far greater than the sum of infinitely small orders differed in time. In that context, managing market impact requires introducing an explicit market impact function, the influence of which the agent will try to minimize. The effect on hedge asset prices significantly depends on whether there is or not significant delta hedging activity. In case of no significant delta hedging activity, the risk appetite has a significant influence on the optimal execution strategy. If there is significant delta hedging activity, the optimal trading involve

Description: Presented at May 2002 Spring Meeting. This session describes the general features of advance programs operated by various Federal Home Loan Banks, summarizes potential benefits to insurers and identifies key issues surrounding the programs.

Description: This presentation, session number 102PD, took place at the 1999 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 17-20 in San Francisco. The panelists discuss the characteristics of more popular forms of asset-backed securities, including receivables, home equity loans, home improvement loans, and manufactured housing loans. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 25, No. 3.

Description: Explains the more granular breakout of bond RBC factors proposed to the NAIC. Evaluates alternative asset allocation choices for insurers under the new rules.

Description: Panelists discuss issues faced by the insurance-company portfolio manager, how to measure or value interest-rate risk, some of the new cash investment vehicles available, the futures and options market, construction of a synthetic security, and the review of mortgage-backed securities under new analytical techniques. From the 1987 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 13, No. 3.

Description: This work describes a study undertaken to determine whether the Federal Housing Administration FHA should modify or discontinue its single-family home mortgage insurance program for investor i.e., non-occupant loans.

Description: ETFs have seen explosive growth in the past decade. Due to its flexibility and embedded risk management features, insurance companies and pension funds, are showing increasing interest in this asset class. This session covers an introduction to ETFs and the risk/rewards for insurance companies and pension funds as an additional asset class.

Description: Measuring Fair Value for Participation Units of Stable Value Pooled Funds

Description: In this article, we will analyze the recent value investing experience in the Canadian equity market, determine the main macroeconomic variables that drove the value cycle performance in that period, and draw some conclusions about the benefits of style rotation between value- and growth-oriented styles in the management of an investment portfolio.

Description: The article is a summary of Session 9PD at the Society of Actuaries annual meeting in New Orleans in October 2001. Terminal funding the purchase of annuities by pension plans usually at plan termination and stable value GIC's became major product lines in the 1980's. This article describes the changes in the those products, the markets and regulatory environment.